Clocks are put back: A third have problems with the time change

Clocks are changed on Sunday night. It’s only about an hour – but that’s causing more and more people problems, a survey shows. And sleep physicians would also like to abolish the time change.

Every year in autumn and spring, a large proportion of Germans feel weaker than usual. Because that is when the clock is changed – and that causes more and more people to create problems. According to a survey by the health insurance company DAK, 32 percent of Germans complain about physical or psychological complaints after the time change – the highest level in the past ten years.

81 percent of those who have had problems after the time change feel weak and tired. 69 percent have trouble falling asleep and sleeping disorders, 41 percent have trouble concentrating, and 30 percent feel irritable, according to the survey. At 40 percent, women suffer almost twice as often from health problems after the time change as men (23 percent).

“Mini jet lag” with health consequences

It’s “only” about an hour, one might object. Why is this having such a big impact? Alfred Wiater from the German Society for Sleep Medicine says our biological rhythm is largely determined by external factors. “This is done by so-called zeitgebers. The most important external zeitgeber is light. In particular, the blue component of the morning sun suppresses the sleep hormone melatonin and promotes the release of serotonin, which activates us and puts us in a positive mood.” Due to the changes – especially in the spring from normal to summer time – “adjustment processes are necessary that correspond to a mini-jet lag”.

According to Wiater, our hormone balance can also get confused. “Adaptation to a new time zone is regulated by the suprachiasmatic core,” says Wiater. This brain region is “our main internal timer and regulates diurnal fluctuations in body temperature and the release of melatonin, cortisol and growth hormone”. If this inner clock gets confused due to an abrupt change in the time, the hormone release has to be laboriously adjusted. Wiater therefore has a clear opinion on the time change: “As a result, the population is regularly exposed to unnecessary health risks.”

Normal- better than Daylight Saving Time

Most Germans see it that way too. In surveys, almost three quarters are in favor of abolishing the time change. However, this would also mean strong changes in the times of sunrise and sunset, which are all the more serious the further north you are. In Flensburg, if the standard time was permanent, the sun would rise at around 3:45 a.m. in summer and disappear behind the horizon at 9 p.m. If summer time were to be retained, it would only get light in Flensburg shortly before 10 a.m. in December.

Wiater and the German Society for Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine advocate the retention of normal time – i.e. winter time. Also one Study by the University of Bologna comes to the conclusion that the sleep-wake cycle is significantly more disturbed by the changeover in spring than in autumn. And a Study by the Swedish Karolinska Institute even assumes that the risk of a heart attack will be around five percent higher in the days after the changeover to daylight saving time.

Younger people benefit from daylight saving time

But there are also counter-arguments, mainly sociological and psychological ones. Most people can probably make better use of the longer days in summer in the evenings, for example to do sports or meet friends. Restaurateurs also benefit more when it is light longer in the evening hours than when the sun rises at 4 a.m.

There is also a small generational conflict behind this, as the occupational physician Thomas Harth from the University Hospital Hamburg Eppendorf explains: “Younger people are active longer in the evenings and like to sleep in in the morning, are more like owls as a biotype. The older we get, the more likely it is that getting up in the morning will be delayed and falling asleep in the evening – we become more like larks.” This is why older people cope better with wintertime, while younger people tend to benefit from summertime. “That’s why more older people tend to be in favor of abolishing the time change.”

Shift workers much more affected

The occupational physician also emphasizes that the time change definitely has consequences for chronobiology. However, there are many other factors that have a much stronger influence on our internal clock and our health, shift work in particular. Around 15 percent of the workforce in Germany works in shifts. Harth therefore promotes the fact that these people get compensation for the night of the time change – in which they each (often unpaid) have to work an hour longer. In general, it is important for sleep hygiene to ensure that the bedroom is well darkened so that sleep is restful, no matter how long the night lasts.

EU-wide survey without consequences

However, the question remains as to why governments are not addressing the issue of time change. One problem with this: Politicians say that binding regulations are needed throughout Europe. And in other countries, the topic does not seem to affect people as much as it does here. This is also shown by a non-representative survey of EU citizens from 2018. 4.6 million of the approximately 450 million EU citizens voted at the time – and 80 percent were in favor of abolition. But most of the participants, around three million, came from a single country: Germany.

Nevertheless, the EU had promised at the time to tackle the issue. But little has happened since then: “The last discussion took place in 2019,” says commission spokesman Adalbert Jahnz ARD studio Brussels. “The ball is further in the playing field of the member states.” Apparently, given the war in Ukraine, the climate crisis and the pandemic, the topic has slipped down the priority list of heads of state and government.